Sad Story of Dodhy Kangen Band, Fell into Poverty and Sold 4 Houses and Cars Until Ashamed to Return to Hometown

Kapanlagi.com - The music group Kangen Band once experienced a period of glory, before finally falling into turmoil due to internal conflicts among its members and even declared disbandment. At that time, Dodhy, the guitarist and songwriter of Kangen Band chose to venture into businesses outside of music.

However, unfortunately, none of his businesses yielded any results. Even to the point of bankruptcy and falling into poverty.

"I have tried all kinds of businesses and went bankrupt. I have sold four houses for trading, opened a cafe, and even a livestock farm," said Dodhy at Kaybin Studio, South Jakarta, on Wednesday (30/5/2023).

"In Cibubur, I even had to rent a place and only had a motorcycle worth six million rupiahs. I was very confused and stressed, thinking about how to rise again. Finally, I sold my songs at a very low price. It's okay to sell them cheaply because I had already used up all my houses for business, so I had to find a way to survive. Moreover, we had conflicts with other members," he continued.

1. Kangen Band's Unfortunate Fate

Apparently, according to Dodhy, he was not the only one who experienced a stroke of bad luck. Other members of Kangen Band also had a similar fate.

"At that time, the band was in a feud, it was really sad. Even our bassist, Bebe, became a motorcycle taxi driver. I was really sad. He was already in a bad state. He was not doing well as a motorcycle taxi driver. After that, he got divorced from his wife. Basically, his condition was pitiful. He only had 5000 rupiah in his pocket," said Dodhy.

"Then my keyboardist, Izy, started a small vape business. He did it every day at around 10 am for about three years. My guitarist, Tama, came to Izy's house. That's when we made up. I felt sorry for his motorcycle, the speedometer glass was already broken," he continued.

Knowing each other's poor condition, Dodhy and his friends thought about going back to their hometown. However, they were too ashamed to do so.

"We thought we were finished in Jakarta. We were ashamed to go back because we were known as artists. People thought we had money. It was really difficult," said Dodhy.

2. Reconciliation of Kangen Band

The fate of Kangen Band members started to improve when Ucup Synchronize persuaded them to reconcile. Not only Ucup, but the manager of Wali Band, Aji, also tried to reconcile the Kangen Band members.

"When we started to come together, Ucup Synchronize persuaded us. At first, it was just me and Andika. We were also mediated by Aji Wali. He sent us messages one by one to join," said Dodhy.

3. Rising Again

Long story short, the Kangen Band members reunited to perform and create music again. However, according to Dodhy, it was difficult at first because the members had been at odds and had not met for a long time.

"Finally, we performed, but there was a lot of pride involved. The atmosphere was not good and the meeting was not healthy. Finally, we kept it quiet. Finally, we had a Kangen Band reunion. We started to get back into it little by little. It was still difficult for me because I didn't have a car and the pandemic made it difficult to meet for a long time," he said.

Still experiencing difficult times, Dodhy and other Kangen Band members began to feel lucky when Wahana Musik offered them a contract.

"Thank God we found one of the labels in Indonesia, Wahana. We were contracted to produce 250 songs, which is worth around 8 billion rupiah. We took it immediately because we didn't have any other job. We produced about 7-8 songs per month as much as we could. That's quite good, one person could earn 70 million rupiah," said Dodhy.

4. Almost Giving Up

However, according to Dodhy, at that time the economic condition and other personnel were not yet stable. Because out of the 15 songs produced, none of them exploded. He thought about giving up. But a miracle really happened when they released the song 'Cinta Sampai Mati' in 2022.

"We released 15 singles in a year and none of them sold. It was only when we released the 16th single, 'Cinta Sampai Mati', that it sold. At first, I told the office and my friends that if this one didn't sell, I would wrap up Kangen Band. It seemed like Kangen Band was no longer popular in Indonesia. But then 'Cinta Sampai Mati' exploded," he said.

5. Conditions Improve

After that, Dodhy said his economic condition improved. He was able to buy a house and a vehicle. He also started a music business by becoming a producer.

"After that, I had a little capital and learned to become a producer. I started working with Ziell Ferdinan. I thought it was crazy that in music, I was only working with one artist and making billions of rupiah. I was shocked. That's why I focused on the music business," he said.

One valuable lesson Dodhy learned from his story is not to be complacent when on top and not to do business in areas that are not understood.

"If it's not a field that I understand, I won't try it because I already have experience and know what I'm good at. When you're on top, don't get complacent," he said.

(kpl/dan/rsp)